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A walk through the most recent ways we've leveled:
-XP for killing people in PvP/Captures - Removed
-Arrows; make stacks and sac them - Removed
-Frames - make/sac - Removed
-Campfires/Hay/Soil - Reduced/Removed
-Crafted Items General Reduction Of Sac Value
-Zombie/Spider Gold Farm - Reduced/removed
-Color Value of Sac Items/Vessel Color changes
PVE Now the best Option to level
-White Sac (Campfire/Ores) till it phases out.
-Greatly decreased gold from humanoids only
-Recipe Books
-Farming of Level-appropriate ranked mobs
On Test:
Weigh of gold as pertains to leveling reduced.
[Phroot added:]
Major disc's - gated behind timed spawn and RNG. - Changed in 5.9
Minor disc's - gated behind timed spawn and RNG. - Changed in 5.9
Crafting Nec/Blacksmith/Leatherworker (include Woodworker if want a hunger shard fitted) - gated behind timed spawn and RNG (for tools, Googles, Hammer, Awl and Shard hammer). - Some PVE required for end-game crafting progression, I don't agree that everyone shoudl be able to make fully-kitted out gear right away. [/Phroot]
If I'm being honest, not just trying to be negative, this game has the worst PvE experience I've ever encountered since July 1999 until May 2019 so basically in the past 20 years and the many many games I've played, this game has by far the worst PvE.
Used to, you got a pass on this because Todd/Blair "this is not a PvE game, this is a PvP game" and so whenever anyone would post about PvE frustrations/problems, thats the general tone by which we as a community would respond.
Now that you are MAKING us PvE, you need to be accountable to your PvE. It's really really really lacking. Not only bugged interactions, but it just feels like the whole PvE aspect of this game was a summer interns project.
What are your plans around this? Is this something that's going to be quickly phased out?
I'm not even mad about having to PvE - I'm ok with it. If you are going to make us PvE, are there any plans to make PvE better?
If you are going to phase out this PvE requirement, or phase in PvP XP or some other solution, why are you squeezing us so bad on leveling of vessels in the mean time?

5.90 LIVE Release notes
Crowfall Pre-Alpha Build 5.90
Welcome to The God Trials
To report any issues or bugs, please go here: 5.90 Bug Reports
To report feedback, please go here: 5.90 Feedback
For an up-to-date list of known issues please go here: 5.90 Known Issues
New Items for 5.90
Embargos are temporarily turned off. Players will temporarily be allowed to move items in and out of worlds without any need to lock or unlock characters.
New Character controller technology has been incorporated. Character, mob, and NPC movement should feel much smoother, especially in the following aspects:
Combat generally feels much smoother
Executing power combos
Double Jumps
Player positioning
Sprinting/Walking
Server stability improvements and better logging/debugging functionality has been added to server infrastructure.
New lighting system.
New Siege Windows.
Death and Respawn functionality overhaul.
Updates to Environmental Lighting.
A large amount of focus was put into fixing several Quality of Life bugs.
Hunger Crystals are now the driving factor for a mob to transition into a hunger version. Any mob within a 50m will now transition into hunger form. The day/night transition cycle has been disabled.
Campaigns and Sieges:
When the siege ends at a fort, the state of the fort will go back to the Holding state instead of staying as capturing or losing.
Walls, Guards, and ParcelObjects should now all change to neutral faction instead of 0 faction when a fort/outpost becomes unclaimed. This allows the gate teleporters at forts to work for everyone when the fort is unclaimed.
Siege weapons should no longer be visible while in crowform.
Siege start toast should now correctly trigger when a keep siege begins.
Siege engines should no longer be placeable at the forts unless there is an active siege window. They should also clean up when the siege window ends.
Fix for gates not being interactable if intersected with another hippo.
Fixed a bug where the tree of life wasn't being destroyed at the end of a siege where the attackers win.
Do you want to Destroy [Item name] message will no longer be displayed when you drop a Hippo/Siege material to the border line of the Hippo Window.
Siege window will now close automatically after 1 seconds.
Campaign scoreboard now scales correctly to screen size.
Updated Banewood tree name from Banecircle to "Banewood Tree".
Added Minor Discipline drops to War Tribe Elites.
Siege weapons can no longer overlap when placed.
Adjusted collision on Catapult and Trebuchet to make aiming a bit smoother.
Spider Queens added to Canyons in Cluster 15, 16, GREU02, GRNA02.
Added Necro Goggles to War Tribe tables!
Removed New Player Experience vendor from starter area, and making him a temporary guard instead in the temple.
New Temple art assets in God’s Reach and Campaigns have been added.
Created a new equipment vendor who sells primitive armor and can be found in the market area of the temple.
Combined both melee and ranged weapons onto one vendor in the temple.
General Powers:
Lots of rework has been done to powers in order to facilitate the new movement controller including:
Forced Movement Powers
Don't allow players to push you with separation forces when you can't move (dead, knocked down, bleeding out, client blackout).
Projectile Rework
Includes rework and bug fixes for siege weapon projectiles.
Player powers with projectiles.
Channeled Powers Rework
Several powers have had new FX added or updated, such as Archer Stake.
Barrier will no longer stack above the cap value.
Fixed for Resurrection and other channeled "single push" powers from not executing and potentially looping the animation indefinitely.
Recall now requires grounded state.
Removing Cancel Combo option from powers that still use them, longer channeling powers such as Whirlwind, Barrage, and Whirling Pain can now cancel those powers via using a Flash-Cast power or Jumping.
Fixed bug where holding a button would re-trigger a charged/channeled power after it just finished. This is not the desired behavior. Instead, you have to press the button to initiate the power. Held button powers still require you to hold them, but must press to initiate any power other than left-mouse-button attacks.
Changed guard respawn time to 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes.
General Class Powers:
Assassin, Ranger, Champion, Knight, Myrmidon, and Ranger must now have a bow equipped to switch to their ranged tray.
Interacting while stealthed removes player from stealth and now places them into the Survival Power Tray.
Dissipate should aim towards move direction always.
Discipline Powers:
Ghost Army: Fixed issue with Heal not correctly applying to the caster after 15 seconds.
Class Powers:
Druid:
The Nature's Force proc is now: Nature's Force causes your Spark to deal 25% additional damage, and Coalesce Life Orbs to Heal for 25% additional healing for 20 seconds.
Flow of Nature: Now improves all Coalesce Life Orbs by 25%.
Duelist:
Fix for Channeling UI is not visible for the Duelist power Rapidfire.
Ranger:
Fixed an issue that prevented players from using Explosive Trap and Faerie Trap when energy was full.
Talents:
"Robbery" tooltip now states that it will remove the "Camouflage" power from Wood-Elf Racial power.
Double Shots!: This talent now deals the bonus damage.
Double Shots!: This talent now deals 25% damage and is a 6 second buff upon hitting a target with a charged bow power.
Call for Fire has been replaced with Trick Shots.
Animation:
Adjusted animation ranges on the bow knockdown for the male and female fae.
Added minotaur stealth animation.
Several fixes made to fae stealth.
Polish on whirling pain animation for stoneborn.
Fixed sliding on Ricochet shot, also fixed the blend trees on explosive shot and rapid fire.
Fixed book sheath location for High Elf confessors.
Fixed shoulder pad and end pose in Harvest summon anims.
Fixed Guineacian pepperbox shot exit.
Fixed grip on harvest tools for centaur.
Fixed Stoneborn shovel grip.
User Interface:
Main player HP bar now includes barrier information and bars have had a visual update.
Fixed group member crests to show correct faction.
Items can now be rearranged on a vendor.
Moved default walk key from C to Keypad Backslash.
Several bug fixes for talent windows and vendor windows.
Added color indicator to King of the Hill UI to show which faction is winning.
Added text to power tray for siege equipment.
Largely cleaned up the aim mode, so it makes more sense and is cleaner. Uses decal instead of projector too. Fixed a bug with aim being off the reticle.
Visual and Sound FX:
Hellcat shadowstep FX fix.
Fixed missing decal textures for several Champion, Druid, and NPC powers.
New audio elements have been created and added for siege events, hippo construction, lobby interface, death/respawn, and player movement sounds.
New sounds have been added to an abundance of powers.
New combat music track has been implemented.
Reduced volume on some toast messages.
EKs and Deeds:
Updated houses large and medium to allow crafting stations to be placed inside.
Updated collision on the tetragonal tower to try to fix the error players were seeing when socketing towers.
Updated modular walls, gatehouses with mesh colliders and optimized collision.
Fixed an issue where building placement can move players.
Adjusted an issue where deed sockets were not visible at times.
Updated attachable melee vendor stall to fix missing sword textures.
Disabled the "Scoreboard" button in the map when we're viewing the map for an EK because they don't have scoreboards.
Harvesting and Crafting:
Major Crafting Disciplines are no longer required for recipe access, only correct station type.
Added a tier to each discipline tooltip header.
Fixed various harvesting issues, including hitting weak spots and a couple of hacks that were previously present but no longer needed for pulling up the charging bar for old harvesting powers.
Plate Boots Recipe now has correct Icon for Metal Plate Ingredient.
Limited Use Mount Scrolls now equip into the Saddle Slot to gain the recipe.
Added hidden ingredient "Polished Soulstone" to all Spirit Tools.
Created multiple outcomes for the new type of Spirit Tools.
The new tools have a small chance to produce Soul Essences whenever a resource node is destroyed.
Created Soul of X (named after Exploration Disciplines) for each of the premier Exploration Disciplines.
Added loot tables to rank 6 and above resource nodes for the Soul Essences.
Created crafting recipes for Exploration Disciplines.
Created new Exploration discipline templates to swap out in the future, so our naming conventions are preserved.
Made a pass on lore text formatting for many an item.
Consolidated the Unmarked Stone/Wood runestones into a single Unmarked Runestone recipe that switches output based on using Knotwood, Named Wood, Cobblestone or Named Stone.
Intermediate tools now use a basic tool as an ingredient instead of Unmarked wooden runestone.
Created Item Templates for Soul of X (blademaster,poisoner,etc) for all combat majors.
Created single recipe for major disciplines which switches output based off the Soul of X used.
Converted Book of Arkon and Mystical Staff recipes to be more like other weapon crafting recipes. (2 damage components, 1 critical damage stage add, etc)
Increased Weight on Book of Arkon as it should be considered a 2h weapon and not a 1h weapon from a numerical standpoint.
Metal Bar, Stitched Leather, and Planks now have 2 components that have Critical Healing and Critical Amount.
Reduced the stat values on all Hunger Shard Weapon additives.
Added new vendor for armor crafting items in forts and keeps.
Changed reference from Gold Bar to Aurelium Bar in Discipline: Major recipe.
General Bug Fixes:
Fixed an issue with the display information for weapon damage type overlapping item names.
Fixed an issue where sheathing the harvesting tool causes it to remove itself.
Updated necro crafting station to fix texture/material errors on Mino head.
Fixed cairns floating, and also verified npc objects are on the ground after death as well.
Fixed thunking through objects on login.
Fixed a line of sight issue that was preventing NPCs from damaging players if they stood inside of a cairn object.
Fixed a line of sight issue that was preventing NPCs from damaging players if they stood inside of a cairn object.
Fixed an issue where an item could be moved while trying to split a stack.
Fixed a bug where the current XP on the sacrifice window was rounding improperly.
Consumable foods no longer have overlapping text on tooltip.
Loot Improvements and War Tribe Scavenging Chests have been added.
Tutorial Events will not display when in Crow Form.
Fixed tombstone interaction grid to not go off the screen.

Suggestions --------- I played just over a year ago for about a month and then stopped, I am getting too old to spend a lot of time play testing a game.
Ok here is my suggestion.
JTodd, I have been a fan of the games you've been apart of in the past. I was addicted to Shadowbane and I liked some parts of Faxion. I signed up to Crowfall because of your past games and the original vision YOU had for Crowfall.
STOP LETTING THOMAS BLAIR MAKE DECISIONS....he is turning your game idea into a grind fest...a chore. The crafting system is WAY TOO interdependent. The passive skill training takes WAY TOO long. Gear breaks WAY TOO often and soon. Disciplines seem WAY TOO hard to come by. The fact that I need 3 guild members to do anything really makes an independent person feel like a leach /a dependent child / a hanger-on; it's kinda degrading.
If I get a week where I have the luxury of being able to play a game....it doesn't matter how much I grind, I still will have a lowbe. Much of character development is locked behind a time gate (I felt that in Faxion as well, though not nearly to the degree I feel it in Crowfall).
I was exited for a Throne warfare game like Shadowbane that had a fast paced, combat system like Faxion. But what this game in it's current iteration has me wondering if I will keep playing.
Even with a guild, this game (the past 3 weeks I have been back playing) is way to much grind for me. Just as I farm enough blue mats for weapons and armour, my white gear breaks (again) leaving me to finish trying to level a blue vessel with the had earned blue gear I JUST GOT. After about 10, R10 cats, the durability on my brand new gear is already close to 1/3 lower and I haven't died in that gear yet. So as other threads have said...it a grind for the sake of grinding; NOT for GvG throne warfare.
To my understanding, T Blair is the person behind crafting and passive skill training. He has some good ideas as far as powers go, and even though I feel the crafting system is way too interdependent, some crafting depth is required. T Blair has taken it over-board. Rein him in. By all means, keep listening to his suggestions, I believe he does have some good ones BUT
STOP LETTING THOMAS BLAIR MAKE DECISIONS

We are excited to share that our plan is to release The God Trials update to our TEST server next week.
FULL STORY
---------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE 5/13/19
Hey, everyone! We are in the final stages of the God Trials update deployment. I promised I would tell you more when I had more to tell. Here it is.
NO WIPE FOR The God Trials (Pre-Alpha 5.90)
We are trying to keep wipes to a minimum, so the decision was made not to do a wipe with 5.90.
REWARDS RESET
We will be resetting Backer Rewards (i.e. Eternal Kingdom assets, badges, etc.)
WHEN
The update is at least 24-hours away from deployment. During that time, we will continue to address known issues and fine-tune the items on our to-do list. We'll make an announcement when we have a firm "go time".
WHAT TO EXPECT
Here's the overall strategy for this update:
1. The God Trials (Pre-Alpha 5.90) will be rolled out to God's Reach.
2. At least 24 hours later, we'll prop it up on LIVE and begin a short (four-day) campaign. (Note: This will be a non-sanctioned campaign, not a War or Trial of the Gods campaign. Details will be announced soon.)
3. When that campaign ends, we will kick off a new Trial of the Gods.
More news as I get it!
_______________________________________
UPDATE 5/14/19
We are in the process of deploying 5.90 to God's Reach now. LIVE will remain in maintenance mode until the update is complete. I am not able to give an ETA for when service to LIVE will be restored. Meanwhile, TEST is up and there are two active campaigns there for those who would like to spend some time there checking out the new hotness while they wait for LIVE to open again.
CORRECTION: My most humble apology for the incorrect information posted previously: Purchases have NOT been reset. This means that your EK and all the items there, including your vendor's merchandise, will be right where you left it.

Please get rid of the Siege “finished” splash screen, locking up our screens mid combat and causing more lag opening the menu screen to click it off is really problematic - particularly when the Tree of Life is destroyed and the fight over controlling the space to plant your golden apple is still going on.

____________________________________________________________________________
Guild discord: https://discord.gg/YT8fE64 Vanguard - "a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas"
___________________________________________________________________________________ Vanguard is a new Crowfall-only PvP guild, created by veterans from other EU guilds.
We have a very ambitious vision of establishing a smaller guild, with a hardcore mindset.
We do not aim to be a large guild, we instead aim to have a strong core of PvPers, that can make a difference when involved in fights.
We are already active everyday practicing, theorycrafting, min/maxing.
We are the kind of people who wants to get stream sniped, because we love the action.
____________________________ Why join Vanguard?
We can teach you any class/promotion/build at a high level.
Give you an environment that promotes personal development.
A professional approach to the game, while still having fun.
You will play in a guild with very passionated and motivated people.
You will be able to influence and help in the guides we will provide to the community.
______________________________ What is Vanguard looking for?
We are looking for players that share the same mentality and approach to the game that we have. We want players that:
Spends hours theorycrafting and testing builds.
Want to practice every week and improve their skill.
Is able to take constructive criticism.
Love to min/max and optimize their time.
Is able to put their ego aside and take a loss.
Plays more or less every day.
What we are looking for currently: 4x Flex players (atleast 1 Secutor player) 1x Full support player.
________________________________________________________________
If this sounds like something you can see yourself doing, then apply to our guild. APPLY HERE
________________________________________________________________ Our goals:
As mentioned we do not aim to become a large guild, instead we choose quality over quantity.
We do not aim to win campaigns right away, instead we will use this time looking for as much PvP action as possible. We have some goals starting out:
1 - Obtain and keep a strong core of 10 very active players.
2 - Get scrim sessions up and running twice a week.
This list will be updated as we progress.
____________________________________________________________________ FAQ: "Will you accept crafters and harvesters?"
- No, we are only looking for PvP players. But we expect our members to pitch in with gathering resources. "How will you get gear?"
- We have enough alt accounts to cover all professions, and there are plenty of options to outsource. "What will your end goal be?"
- We want to be a force to be reckoned with, but we do not aim to be a large guild. We want to be the turning factor of fights. "Will you only accept experienced players?"
- No, the most important factor, is that you have a will to learn and improve. If you have that mindset, then we can help you to become a great player. "Which guides have you made?"
- While we have a lot of work in progress, we have had a very succesful guide in the past while we played in Caldera.
It can be found here: Promotion Breakdown

Upon review of the great feedback from testers that we’ve seen over the course of the last few days (THANK YOU!), we have decided to take additional time to address some gameplay and technical issues before resuming the Trials of the Gods.
Here’s the plan: We will kick off another mini-campaign, Cimazen, this afternoon. (At the time of this writing, I’m not able to give an exact time; I’ll update this post when I have one.) This will be a two-day campaign. We’ll be watching carefully, so your bug reports and feedback and ultra-important so we can quickly identify anything else that needs tweaking before a new trial begins.
Although the campaign that’s kicking off today will begin too late for an EU siege, EU will still have the opportunity to complete two sieges before this mini-campaign ends on Wednesday.

Scarlett Trading Company
Overview
Scarlett Trading Company (STC) is a faction neutral mercenary and trading guild created with the goal of creating a hub for trading and mercenary activities cross-faction. We want to offer our players the freedom to choose whatever faction they wish to play without losing the support of a guild. Faction neutrality will allow STC to offer unique cross factions services such as killing spy accounts, trading information or feeding misinformation to different factions. Additionally STC will offer any standard services for each faction such as capping forts/outposts, defending/attacking resource heavy areas or even sieging keeps. In order to achieve this STC intends house at least moderate force of 10-15 dedicated players on each faction. Finally, STC seeks to be able to complete any task customers are willing to pay for and therefore must be able to contend with any force on any faction.
Aside from mercenary jobs STC will spend a good portion of time building a trading empire. As its name suggests Scarlett Trading Company will be a large trading EK trading anything from resources to off-profession components to full gear sets and weapons. STC seeks to set the standard for trading companies selling even the highest quality gear (yes even legendary) for the right price. We want to be able to ensure quality and fair prices in addition to offering discounts to newer players and possibly to losing factions if things are looking pretty grim in hopes even out the odds. STC intends to become one of, if not the largest mercenary and trading guild in the Crowfall community.
Requirements
We expect our members to:
Have a Progressive Mindset - While we do want to be one of the best we don’t expect you to already be the best. All we really ask is that you are willing to listen try to improve.
Be Active - You don’t have to make every day just let us know when you aren’t able to make sieges or if you are taking an extended break.
Be Productive - Crowfall requires farming for resources and time spent crafting. Lots of people means lots of farming/crafting...so just be willing to help out in some way.
Have a Good Attitude - Basically just understand that sometimes YOU ARE going to die and YOU WILL sometimes lose stuff. You just have to be willing to get over those things it’s just the nature of the game.
Who Can Join?
Anyone can join, though right now we can only really offer support for order players as we have not yet spread to any of the other factions. We are currently preferring harvesters and those willing to play healing classes, but we aren’t going to turn anyone away as long as they meet the requirements above.
Want to Know More/Want To Join?
Feel free to join our discord https://discord.gg/4m4bkKh and ask questions or inquire about joining STC.

I think you need all of it.
I get that the starter zone is kinda sorta designed to be a linear experience that teaches some of this but I think you need prompts that actually stops the user at the different locations and teaches them a bit more.
Don't let them zone out of the starter area until they complete it sorta thing. Then you definitely need the ability to skip it if you're a veteran player.
I went through this in my mind of how to best teach all of these things and this is what I came up with below. Hope this helps.
Race / class tutorial when making first character.
First thing when zoning in you teach harvesting.
Hit trees to get wood, dust and apples.
Explain the plentiful harvest pips and season modifiers.
Open details tab and view harvesting stats.
After gathering 3 wood, teach crafting by crafting an axe.
Open details tab to show crafting stats.
Gather more wood to craft a pick, hammer, and knife.
Gather stone/wood to craft basic weapons.
Craft basic weapons
Move to next area and kill monsters and skin them.
Gather enough leather to make a full intermediate armor set.
Move to next area which has some advanced R1 nodes and teach about those.
Harvest enough materials to make intermediate weapons.
Send player to intermediate crafting station in this same area.
Craft intermediate weapons and armor. Explain the experimentation system, risk system, etc.
At this point the player has done some combat, crafting and gathering. Direct them to the skill tree to begin training in the areas they enjoyed the most.
At some point the player has gained some levels also. Prompt them to add attribute points and talent points.
When adding talent points and buying skills prompt them to the hotbar loadout screen to arrange new abilities.
Vendor at end of tutorial area before portal which has starter minor discipline runes for each class. Have player get one of these disc runes from vendor and apply it. Teach them to find the passive ability and slot it.
Once complete, direct player to runegate (which teaches them about runegates) to zone out of the starter area.

Regarding this, I will try to be more transparent about what we'd like to have being tested on the TEST server. I will begin by posting in the Announcements forum where I will outline areas of the game that we would really love players to take a look at. Thanks!

There’s always some new tester asking for a wipe and the 200+ people that consistently test are often tired of starting over so a handful of people can get “even foot” when it’s been woefully lopsided every time and then those new people quit and we wiped for nothing.
They shouldn’t wipe for the community, they should only wipe when they need to for dev reasons like database changes or new systems.

I don't mean just the leveling curve. I mean the endless random farming, how gear breaks farming gear, how sacrifice interacts with leveling (how bad the UI and wasted xp at cap is for sacrifice is an issue), how vessels don't sac, how higher tier vessels get less xp from sources, an endless standing in circles capture system, lack of mines for pvp centric players.
In SB the beta guilds had zero problem leveling on release and securing every start up server under a different warlord. The SB PvE system was trash and it was avoidable or at least afk'd bc it was so bad. They don't want us skipping the PvE here but its bad PvE and there's so much of it. The barrier to get into competitive PvP is massive. God's Reach, Faction, Dregs will all suffer from the same symptoms of Uncle BoB bc Uncle Bob is a built in intended feature. The very nature of the game is carrying over knowledge, skills, organization, logistics and for some servers gear, vessels and stockpiles.
How much PvE is required to be competitive in PvP? How long does it take to farm majors/minors, level a green+ vessel (the jump from white to green is waaaay too high), get a green set of gear from the 3-5 crafters you will need to befriend/trade with (they wont want gold so you will need to farm dust which is gated behind training) and then learn how your class plays and hope you picked the right class and talents or you have to do it all again? How many new people are going to do that? How many people will want to do all of that while getting smashed by people who have been doing it for years or months and know exactly what to do.
The faction servers now perfectly show what I suspect will happen come launch. The established player base and long term active guilds have banded together and won every trial and won that by massive leads. The Eu server is even more one sided than NA bc of less people. How many new people are going to get smashed while jumping through all of those hoops and keep playing after a month?

Prologue
Caldera has been an active part of Crowfall since early August 2015.
“We are the attackers, causing mayhem and murder.
We are the crafters you will spend your funds on.
We are laying siege to your castle and crushing your attempts to take ours.
We are the refuge and protection from The Hunger that is creeping in on us all. “ We are Caldera - Playing with Fire!
Avocation – “What does it mean to be part of Caldera?”
“Real Life First – Full Commitment when Available Improvement – Team – Success Equality amongst friends, respect towards enemies…”
The only thing you really have to do is take care of your real life. To balance between gaming and the rest of your life is your call. When you do come online and play with us, we want you to be fully committed ~ To Play with Fire.
Strive for improvement. we will never be perfect. That doesn't have to keep us from trying. Learn from successes and mistakes, from your allies, your enemies, and yourself. Always ask yourself "what would have been a better way to approach this situation?" Don't be afraid to receive feedback, and don't be afraid to give it.
Play for the Team. We are not a pile of solo players. The team is our strength, our motivation, our family. Always try to do what is best for the team, and in the long run the team will do what's best for you. We share our time, knowledge, and ingame goods.
Aspire for success. While there is sometimes room to “mess around”, when it matters, we always play to win, no matter the odds. People will depend on you. Always play to the best of your ability, use your best judgement, and trust in your allies to do the same.
We are all equal gamers and humans, and we treat each other as such. Being an Officer means taking up a responsibility for the good of the guild, no less and no more. Every voice matters. This even includes our enemies: be respectful, in victory or defeat. No flaming, harassment, bug using or cheating.
What do we offer our members – “It’s a package deal!”
A fun and friendly environment to achieve common goals in.
A flexible hours guild with a hardcore mentality when it comes to the important stuff. (Casually Hardcore).
A massive amount of in game knowledge to be shared to empower our guild members.
A common progressive attitude towards the game where all guild members are recognized for their contributions.
Applying – “Still here? Perfect.”
Upon reading this, if you feel that Caldera might be a place for you then all you need to do, is click below:
APPLY NOW
Still not persuaded?
If you wish to learn more about our structure and how we do things, then just click below.
Read More!
Link to the original Caldera recruitment thread.

Greetings Crows,
Sgt. Atreus has done some nice work putting together all the latest on disciplines in 5.9. and we've decided to share his work with the rest of the community.
https://1drv.ms/x/s!Ai_itbqfeWeDgoBUH8CShE66IT-Yvw
@AtreusThank you very much for the hard work sir!
Enjoy everyone!
/salute

Whew, ok. Let me reply to this thread again in stages because this is one of those subjects that's probably going to require more than one stream to cover all the things. Talking with our team we initially wanted this stream to be an "intro" course into vessel creation, leveling, and how a new player can get a new vessel. I'm pretty sure we touched on a lot of those entry level points today, but for the current set of players or those who are more hardcore, we didn't really bring anything new or address a lot of your questions. So, with that being said let me touch on a few things we're going to work toward iterating. This is going to be a collaborative experience with all of you!
1. I completely forgot to mention this point, but I'm sure most of you already knew about this. We have a plan to now broaden XP gain into other aspects of game play, such as harvesting, crafting, and taking outposts.
2. We're going to go back and re-examine the amount of XP given on a mob kill. 50XP for a rank 1 and 50XP for an elite mob just doesn't feel right, and we're going to start establishing a better baseline for mob XP. This is one of those "Le duh" game developers, moment but this specific issue fell under our radar and now that I'm aware of it, I want to fix it ASAP.
3. New player experience and God's Reach fine tuning. We're at a point where we have a general idea of how we want this to feel and want to work on iterating on this experience, including XP gain, overall flow, and feel.
4. Sacrifice amounts: This is a big one and this one is probably going to take the most time to adjust and polish, but I agree with you. Some of the values on our loot items are not at the best rate for level gaining. Let's re-evaluate these values!
I have a lot of other ideas and possible solutions, but they all depend on how receptive the powers that be are to those ideas. I won't go into detail on them since it's always a possibility those ideas will get shot down, but I just want you to know that my current intent is to facilitate a solid playable experience. OK, I see some other posts here asking specific questions and I'll do my best to answer those, now!

In the name of the Citizens of Ravenheart, I would like to thank Travian for this contest and for our entry being chosen as the winner of this contest.
Since this honor is already more than what we had hoped for and because CoR understands itself as group that has the prosperity of the community at it's heart, we would like to pass our prices on to the 2 honorable mentions, who otherwise wouldn't get anything for their efforts of bringing life to this contest.
A good community shouldn't be about a few getting all the benefits and feeling great about it, while others are getting nothing -- but about the lucky ones sharing with the group; showing that participation can pay out, even if unexpected. We would like to make a point into this direction, hoping that Travian will find a way to make it possible - and that others may follow this lead one day.
Thanks to everybody who joined the contest and congratulations to all the winners. You are one of the pillars our community is built upon. If we keep on building together, we can achieve the extraordinary. We just need to do it. Whatever you decide to do ...
Have fun, good luck
Kraahk

So let's say you have a guild member who asks you for some blue or epic flexible hide? What do you do? You go farm rank 9s!
How long will you need to farm to acquire enough blue, or even epic quality materials to make a full set of armor? Well, just watch the video and do the math..
Spoiler: Much longer than a miner.
TLDW: stats and results at the end of the video.

Hmmm. White knight Mandalore to the rescue!
They are developing a game and they’ve locked themselves into an expectation that there will always be a persistent 24/7 trial going. Let’s be honest with ourselves, there shouldn’t be and they don’t have to do that. Their testing needs come before us “playing” and they find themselves and a patch crossroads. 5.90 is a huge patch for them (just like 5.8 and 5.7 and 5.6) and they are close but it needs to be tested. If there’s a campaign up on live then everybody is “playing” live and only a handful of people are testing test. So they have to make a choice.
1. Do they push an unfinished 5.90 to test and launch a trial? It will most assuredly go bad and anybody who is playing the trial will be mad for them pushing something so unfinished and bug ridden.
2. Do they delay the trial for their needs (a week or two at most) and ensure the large 5.90 bug list is under wraps before launching another trial?
One of those options is about placating people and costs them money, time and other resources while still trying to do their job (make the game) and the other is them doing their job. If launching the trials every gets in the way of them pushing content so the game can move forward they should delay every time. We paid for early access to pre alpha testing and if that becomes liability to the production of the game they should cut us off as needed.

The corridor was adorned with tapestries depicting past battles. Thimble always loved walking through the Hall of Battle. Busts of vessels wielded by heroes of the Citadel dotted the walls as well, each one placed carefully on a pedestal that Stoneborn had shaped and grown out of the walls themselves.
Coming to a large set of doors, Thimble pushed them open and entered the chamber beyond. The War Room was large and circular, with several cylindrical tables that were designed to be moved around the room to mimic the configuration of one of the many worlds they visit before the Hunger destroys them. Praelian, Battle Commander of a group that called themselves the Fist of the Empire, was next to one of the tables talking to Vanboozled, one of the Sergeants of the Citadel. As Thimble entered, they turned toward him.
“Our forces will stage at the Temple in the Trial of Illara shortly,” Praelian said in his gruff voice, which Thimble noted was both strong and confident. “How many will you be able to bring to support us, Van?”
“I’m hoping we can commit two squads to tonight’s siege. Many of our warriors have been busy with other … projects.” If Praelian’s voice was gruff, Vanboozled’s was pure gravel, coarse and grizzled, both broken and strengthened from a tremendous amount of experience leading forces in battle.
“Great. Now that Thimble’s here, I’ll tell you about the plan for tonight,” Praelian began. He went on to describe what the Fist’s strategists had come up with.
A few minutes later, two squads of Corvus Citadel and 3-4 squads of Fist of the Empire gathered at the Temple in the Trial of Illara, ready to move out. Suddenly, eight warriors bearing black shield crests with green triangles on them appeared. Though Chaos, they had become infamous for their past actions, and both Praelian and Vanboozled knew well to avoid them. Once the order was given to go through the portal to Aerynth, the black shields followed. The Fist broke off and went one way while the warriors of the Citadel went another, and the black shields split up as well, in an attempt to follow. Vanboozled led his two squads in a circular path, twice dodging around outcroppings, and finally one of the scouts reported that there were no more black shields following. The report came in that the Fist had managed to shake their pursuers as well, so the two groups met up in the forest named Wolf’s Cry, just southeast of the Tetuoria Taubaet Keep.
Mere moments later, all eight of the black shield warriors showed up; they must have had a scout who was following undetected. Almost immediately following that, a horde of Balance was reported leaving the keep and heading straight toward where the Fist and the Citadel forces were gathered inside the tree line and behind a cliff. The black shields had somehow reported the hidden position to the enemy.
There was not even enough time to pivot before the enemy was upon them. A bloody battle ensued, and right at the start the vessel that Thimble was wielding was netted and pulled into the middle of the enemy forces before he even had time to build up enough pyrotechnic energy to immolate. He managed to struggle out of the net just in time for his Elken hooves to carry him to safety - or so he thought. With one final bleat, the vessel succumbed to its wounds, and Thimble found himself in crow form at the nearby portal.
It seemed that much of the rest of the force had met a similar fate shortly thereafter, because the order came to return to the Temple and make haste toward the Brookhurst portal. Intelligence came in that the force that had attacked them was Hy'shen Avari and that they had won despite the combined force of Corvus Citadel and Fist of the Empire outnumbering them.
Once in Brookhurst, the Sunset Keep was only a short run from the portal they entered through. Because the order was to make best speed, Thimble immediately took off with the few who had gathered around him. His Elken legs carried him faster even than the pack pigs that the other warriors were riding, so he made the objective and met up with the Fist with his brothers in arms trailing behind him. Immediately, the Fist summoned an enormous trebuchet and began firing it at the walls. Before the rest of Corvus Citadel could catch up, though, a huge force of Order came flowing over the walls and out of the gates of the keep like a tidal wave. Thimble and his brothers and sisters fought valiantly alongside their allies, but it was impossible to last long against such an onslaught. Where they outnumbered the enemy by a small margin in the previous battle and still lost, they were now sorely outnumbered and they simply had no chance at all. Praelian gave the order for a tactical disengage, but by that time all of the Corvus warriors who were there had perished.
Afterward, back at the Citadel, those who had taken part in the battles gathered in the War Room to discuss and learn from the events that had transpired. The next phase of Thimble’s plans for the White Crow was nearly upon them, and when he reported that to the others they became excited. Changes were coming, and as always Corvus Citadel would continue to work with their allies to defend the Chaos faction.
Later, in his chamber within the Citadel, Thimble touched a piece of parchment in his pocket. A note, left on his vessel as it lay on the ground after the second battle, with three words: “Friendship is coming.”

A cooperation of several Ravenheart citizens, presenting several points of view on the current campaigns. Available as an image, here.
Have fun.
The Monarch
The Solo
The Group
The Crafter
I sat in my castle,
I walked through the mist,
The glorious Darkowls
I went to the forge
stiff and alone.
all tired and alone.
where marching forth.
and crafted a lot
And i didn't feel like
And I feel like this war
To capture the Sunset Keep,
I crafted and crafted
I could call it home.
works me down to the bone.
way to the north.
until it got hot.
Empty the court
Empty my stomach
Restokin's Refuge
Then I crafted again
and empty the halls.
and no fire to be seen.
had just fallen to us.
and I crafted it all.
Empty my soul
Can't even remember,
It was just a fort
Then i cried out for mats.
inside empty walls.
how long has it been?
and not worth a buzz.
I'm a resource trawl.
Where are the warriors?
Where are the halls?
But we used it as camp
But nobody came,
Where have they gone?
Tell me where is my home?
to replenish the troups,
so I went out alone.
I sit here and wonder
I sit here and wonder...
to craft a few triboks
I got me some body parts
what wrong have i done?
Just why did I roam?
and train a few noobs.
metals and stone.
I just heard a rumble,
I heard a faint rustling
And then we went off,
Then I crafted again
I heard some screams.
not too far away.
detoured through the south,
and I crafted it all.
I heard feets shuffle
I raised up my sword
„Because east are spies,“
Then i cried out for mats.
didn't know what it means.
to hold danger at bay.
said our own spies mouth.
I'm a resource trawl.
Then suddenly silence,
Then suddenly arrows,
We met several outposts
But nobody came,
no sounds anymore.
a bloodcurdling scream.
with false banners shown.
so I went out alone.
As if their existence
I know I've been ambushed
We smashed them to pieces
I got me some body parts
was nothing but lore.
and this ain't a dream.
and made them our own.
metals and stone.
So I go to the balcony,
I move a step sidewards,
The Forest of Fall is
Then I crafted again
my hand holds a flower.
look out to my right.
where we made a break.
and I crafted it all.
And I watch my land
There's a fiery flower,
We cutthroat it's monsters
Then i cried out for mats.
from the highest tower.
an Elk joins the fight.
for leveling sake.
I'm a resource trawl.
In the distance is fire
I count out the arrows,
It wasn't enough though.
But nobody came,
and hords running by.
each a resounding hit.
And how could it be?
so I went out alone.
I look flabbergasted
My shield is a porcupine,
Epic vessels demand
I got me some body parts
and ask myself: Why?
quite heavy, I admit.
for an epic fee!
metals and stone.
Why should one go out
A small guinecean
When we finally got there
Then I crafted again
into mud, into rain,
- all cuddles and fluff -
they weren't surprised.
and I crafted it all.
when inside it's cosy
rolls by my feet,
They were well prepared
Then i cried out for mats.
with food and champagne.
all a-glow from some buff.
and quite well advised.
I'm a resource trawl.
And while all my musing
I thought to myself,
But we were prepared more,
But nobody came,
turns into a slumber,
this is really a show!
we filled the field
so I went out alone.
I start to remember:
I kicked him away
with siege weapons, warriors,
I got me some body parts
I should fight the hunger.
as if shot from a bow.
sword and shield.
metals and stone.
How could i forget
I know how this ends,
They gave us a hard time.
Then I crafted again
my purpose, my fate?!
there's no time to be nice.
I don't recall
and I crafted it all.
So I run to the kitchen
I will follow my purpose
how often I had to
Then i cried out for mats.
to fill up my plate.
and they'll pay the price.
respawn and all.
I'm a resource trawl.
But since there's no cook
A fireball hits me
Yet we smashed the walls
But nobody came,
and i can not decide,
- the smell is grotesque.
and entered their keep.
so I went out alone.
I start making it all -
I feel like a roast boar
We made them regret
I got me some body parts
be it roasted or fried.
with a hole in my chest.
and we made them weep.
metals and stone.
Some hours later
I take my last stand,
Their captain stood out
Then I crafted again
I'm willing and able
look into my bag,
on the wall and did yell.
and I crafted it all.
to serve all the food
and see my mats vanish,
I gave him a rearkick
Then i cried out for mats.
and set up the table.
stack by stack.
and watched while he fell.
I'm a resource trawl.
Then I hear a rumble,
The last thing I hear are
We killed their tree,
But nobody came,
and i hear some screams.
some screams in the distance.
we watched it burn.
so I went out alone.
I hear some feets shuffle
It seems there are others
If you stand in our way
I got me some body parts
don't know what it means.
to offer assistance.
you will get what you earn!
metals and stone.
Now suddenly laughter
I drift off into silence.
The general stood
There's no glory in crafting,
and peoples galore.
but then I just wake.
in the silence after,
there's work to be done.
As if all the silence
There's laughter and people
looked at the debris
Leave fun to the poor blokes
was nothing but lore.
and what smells like a cake.
and broke out in laughter:
who needs to have fun.
I don't know what happend
I don't know what happened
„Return to our kingdom,
Though, there is an upside
and i do not care.
It seems I'm elsewhere.
get something to eat,
in my nasty chore:
All is as it should be
But it all feels quite comfy,
before we jump back into
At least what i craft
so why should i dare.
so why should I care?
battlefields heat!“
don't just vanish nomore.

Wow, I asked and y'all are definitely delivering! These are seriously some great talking points and I will try my best to touch upon most of what's been brought up, either during the stream or after in this thread.
As a game designer, we carry a heavy burden not many other disciplines in game development carry; toeing the line between fun, challenging, rewarding, and engaging. One of the ongoing issues we have as designers is seeing our work from an objective perspective, or with "fresh eyes", and this is why I look to all of you to help us legit find the fun for our game. It's a luxury not many studios have, and having the ability to iterate and re-evaluate how we've implemented something after seeing how the end user actually takes to it is one of the most important aspects of my job. Sometimes we're constrained by tech and time limitations, but I personally want to work with all of you to build a game we can all be proud of and enjoy playing. To that end, it's also important to note that we're still putting this puzzle together; we've come a long way since the HungerDome days but we've still got some work to do, and I really appreciate that everyone understands that.
Anyway, keep those questions and feedback comin'! I love what you have all brought up so far and I really do thank you for keeping it objective and honest.

There are two issues I see with vessel system which need attention.
First, you will upgrade your vessel as game progresses and when you upgrade vessel, you lose all your skills, talents, attributes and health bonuses, because you create new character. You have to go out and level it to 25th level at least , before you are competitive again. Imagine Dirge, wearing plate armor, upgrading his vessel from white to green. He won't be able to wear his plate until 25th level. Healers won't be able to heal until 17th level, because they lack talent for Support Power. Yes, we want to go out and find fights while we are harvesting/ganking/farming/killing bosses/capturing objectives, but we absolutely don't want to be facerolled by leveled character, because our 5th level vessel can't do anything than PvE.
So here is suggesion: introduce upgrade vessel mechanic, so instead of creating new character, you just upgrade vessel on existing character, you keep all your talents and skills, but your level, attributes and health bonuses are reset, so you need to level it, but you are somewhat competitive. New vessel could be automatically leveled by XP of previous vessel, e.g upgrading from white vessel would add 15k XP to new vessel immediately.
Second, when people play game for a few years, grave diggers and necromancers will be at the top performance to craft legendary vessels. Once player got and leveled his legendary vessel, he won't need necromancer services anymore. It would be great if vessel becomes disposable as any other "gear". Its durability could decrease in combat and after death and once it reaches 0, your character gets some kind of "death debuff", which reduces all stats to 0 or something. Then it should to be replaced or repaired with help of necromancer.

The reports you are getting about low drop rates from hunger crystals are not from God's Reach. God's Reach doesn't even have hunger crystals, afaik. I've never seen one there.
I have spent a considerable amount of time harvesting hunger crystals in campaign, everything from rank 3 to rank 10. I had regular spots that I checked for ranks 6, 7, 8 and 9. I can't tell you how many of those nodes I harvested, but it was a significant number.
55 blue or better shards, 150 total. Only 1 hammer in all that time, which can be used 20 times.
This also doesn't take into account larger populations and more competition for the crystals. I didn't see many other people harvesting them.
The drop rate is too low.

I backed Ashes and wish I could get a refund. I gave CU money as well but my hope is to not have to play RvRvR. I want the dregs. I want a political climate that is dynamic and shaped by the players. I want meaningful PvP for the sake of assets and not just who's epeen is bigger (it's always mine).
What I don't want is a massive barrier to PvP from a half assed overly grindy PvE system that forces its self on me like a drunk Standford swimmer. I don't want to spend more time smashing people that are behind and can't compete simply bc I am a no life neck beard (and I really am) bc the power curve is wildly uneven (a finished level 30 blue vessel with the right discs and some blue gear is a god compared to new players in less). I don't want so spend hours farming for random drops that nobody wants (looking at you thorns based minor disciplines). I don't want a game that fosters Uncle Bob while pretending to combat it and telling me thats a problem with a future fix.

I have the same point of view. Why do we need to level at all? There’s a bunch of other character grind with disciplines etc.
just cut cut out the leveling. We don’t need to “discover” how to use our class slowly.
If people screw up how they spent points they can just make another. They can learn what to do on a base vessel before they upgrade to better vessels which have a cost.
You want people to jump in and play? Get rid of this giant time sink. We don’t need it.

@jtoddcoleman You guys really need to go back and look at your mission statement presented to us for the kickstarter. That's the game we backed. That's the game we want to play.
If I wanted to PvE, I'd go back to WoW. They do it 10x better than you guys. What you do well is small group PvP. Build your game around PvP. Yes, we need stuff to do when not fighting each other, but that shouldn't be the focus of the game. Since the wipe at the start of 5.8.6 I have done no PvP. None. I've been grinding my crafting vessels to get ready to PvP. I've been grinding mats to make disposable gear to grind those crafting vessels.
My entire guild has moved on because you deviated so far from your promises. The tattered remnant that remains can't compete because everything required to succeed in the game requires a large group of people and a willingness to suffer through a long period of doing chores before getting to the part of the game that's enjoyable.
I've invested thousands of dollars in Crowfall, and three years of testing time, and I'm on the verge of walking away too.

They went out of their way in Kickstarter to make this a nonstandard mmo with heavy PvP. There are 50k backers who backed that vision. Are they not obligated to make the game they asked for our money to make? They went out of their way to appeal to the Shadowbane fans, the lead devs first mmo, and then time after time they deviate from that vision. They went out of their way to make it seem more PvP centric than PvE but somehow the game has ended up more PvE than anything else.

Here is an old picture of the Rank 9 treasure Table for ore. From Blair. If it is still current I do not know for sure but it still feels relevant.
If you get a crit you get a roll on the last bottom table. Then you get more rolls per whole number critical amount you have. (I have 5 with gear and skills) so if I get a crit then I get 6 rolls on the bottom table when the node is destroyed.
The nerf to the broken bene harvest gear impacts the amount of crits you are getting nowadays. Also the nerf to Beneficial Harvest Power is massive as well.
My guess is you are not seeing much in the way of drops is due to not understanding the weight and importance of the bene harvest procs. It is the single most important stat and it was GUTTED recently with the fix to gear. Followed up by the crit amount stat. But having 5 in that means nothing if you don't crit.
For ore run Miner and Lookout. Get bene harvest gear, use a bene harvest tool. Weigh everything towards getting and keeping the proc up.

I think I can help. There is both an intentional change and a bug:
The intentional change was to stop the cancellation of the whirlwind by hitting the button again, because people were cancelling it accidentally. Now it should only interrupt via something like a dodge or interrupt power (not sure which, if any, those might be for a Myrmidon).
The bug is that if whirlwind finished normally, no other powers are usable except dodges, jumps, and interrupt powers.
We definitely understand how painful the bug part of that is, and are working to get it fixed.

1. As Arkade mentioned, you can add vendors to the faction temples and free cities in both God's Reach and campaign worlds, so no EK necessary. With the new AFK timers shutting down EKs, player malls are in a bad place. Previously, there were player run malls that would allow independent players to add their own vendors; most recently, Srathor's Lawn and Aerynth Traders were the big names.
2. When gold was made scarce, vendor maintenance rates were not adjusted. We've made that point, hopefully it stays on ACE's radar for a future balance pass.
3. We've repeatedly requested the ability for owners of vendors to be able to place buy orders for basic resources, allowing indy players to sell their harvested goods to player vendors. There's some significant development that needs to happen before we can get that functionality, and it's not a priority item for this phase of development, but they know we want it.

Ahh memories.
Most of the complaints that started this post way back when have been addressed over time. Or perhaps I have mellowed some too.
Nah. Not mellowed, beaten down more than anything.
When I made the post I had gotten up early. and just wanted to hit rocks for a half hour or so. So I went to the only place on the map that had rank 5 nodes. I at the time had on gathering gear. Which was useless because the potions I drank every 12 minutes capped me, but at the time noone knew that.
We did not have the details page. We could only measure by results.
We had a camera zoom in at the time that when you held down F to gather it zoomed you in on the node. There were no weak points to track either. And the noise it made with the Dink dink dink. was so loud you could track gatherers by it. From 500 yards away easy.
There was no class/Race split I think back then. Memory is fuzzy on that. Hell I don't even think we had discs back then Certainly not the combat discs we have now + harvesting discs.
We had 1x training speed not the 3 x we have now. And it was unrefined, still very raw.
So much has changed.
But I still think the risk of the wolves does not nearly match up to the risk of the gatherer/sheep.
I do know over 2 years later that when I am serious about going out to gather I do everything in my power to mitigate that risk. I do everything I can to make sure that if/when I am jumped I get the greatest chance to keep my hard earned loot. Because I know I have almost zero chance of actually defeating the wolves.
If it was a fair chance vrs a wolf then you are fighting a stupid wolf.
But we need the draw of the solo gather vrs the solo wolves. We need the people out in the game world, doing things. All sorts of things, we need ambushes, and ganks and squad fights, and patrols. We need the wolves and the sheep to make the game dynamic and fun.
That is the challenge for ACE. To give us the reasons to play and have fun doing so.
And I still do not like even today how gathering in Crowfall makes me feel. It is needed, it is necessary, but it is really not fun with the effort and training required to get the tools that break so fast, through the choices of discs that are really very little choice involved.
For ore smalls with a maxed toon. I use Miner and Lookout. With all bene harvest chance made gear. The nerfs to bene harvest duration and power and chance stripped out much of the fun of trying other things at end game gathering.
I wish it had more of an impact when I harvested. I wish it was more fun. I miss the days before when I had the freedom to make a few different sets of mismatched gear to tune down to the exact stuff needed to make a GREAT harvester. I really miss the epic ore doober moneyshots of the early game with the +10 Crit amount potion when people could see what popped and would freak out.
If I could change harvesting here is what I would do.
Harvest on enemy controlled lands would be worth x2 points to the scoreboards.
Harvest on contested lands would be worth x1.5 points.
Harvest on your guild/faction controlled lands would be worth 1x points.
More varied more powerful gear, coupled with training so that you can "build" on your skills like a combat spec.
Bene harvest effects should last longer. When duration was bugged and capped at 3 minutes it was quite a bit more fun. Also that made skinning MUCH more palatable.
Action harvesting buffs would affect your group. Making different people do different roles would make that interesting.
Loot would come from multi bucket stats of the different people in your group. Not the person with the most damage to the node. Making people in a gathering group all have useful trainings.
Hitting weak points would have an effect on the node destruction table. Each one hit would add to crit chance and crit amount. Making that minigame really add some excitement back into the actions you do. (not subject to player stat cap as well. Hit 5 weak points on a single node gets you a sploosh of doobers.)
Give me an ability to hide some of my loot. Stashes with a treasure map. Locked chests buried in a hillside, advanced chest/storage/bag that only shows half the loot to be looted. (50% of that bags loot is shown when you are killed. Mats only.)

When new players ask 'how do I do [this]', that's easy for us to answer. When new players ask 'what do I do now?', that's harder to answer short of taking them by the hand and leading them.
Teach them that this is not a theme park, it's a sandbox.

I wish the new drop for crafters were something you wanted instead of needed. For example the bs hammer you need to have treated steel. I would like to see if the hammer did something like it lower resource cost of a piece of armor instead. So again you dont have to need the drop to feel your on equal ground with another player. Instead you would want it because it would help you in another way.

I killed zombies for 5 hours today.
I really don't understand why ACE is trying to make the game more grindy.
I don't think they actually play the game in a legitimate fashion, ie. try to play as if they were actual players trying to win in the live environment, vs. testing things out once or twice in the test environment to prove a feature works.
If they did play the game like real players, I can't possibly understand how they would come to the conclusion that the changes they added over the last few months make the game more fun.